"According to investigators, (the employer) stopped paying over payroll taxes (income taxes withheld and FICA) withheld from employees' wages as well as the matching portion of FICA totalling about $4.7 million from the IRS."

This is a real scenario and my employer. This went on for about 6 years from 2003 to 2009.

One of the comments in the article mentioned 2 things. 1) that the fed gov't. could come after us as employees to collect taxes that should have been paid, and 2) that our social security benefits will be reduced by the amount that wasn't paid in.

By way of background, I'm a retired IRS collection officer intimately familiar with this type of case. If you'd care to provide a link I'd like to read the article. It's rare they get everything right.

Employees get their credit for SS/Medicare earnings and income tax withholding from the W-2 whether or not the employer actually pays over the money. Given the length of time you say this went on the employer must have been issuing correct W-2's.

I do suggest that you request your SS earnings record just to be on the safe side. You can do that online at www.ssa.gov.

The government can go after employees of the corporation who were responsible for and had the authority to ensure payment of the withheld taxes. If you were one of these people in the IRS's eye you'd know it by now.

This whole process is usually administrative, so I'm unsure exactly what it is that's going to court. That's another reason I'd like to read the article.